Rishi Sunak must be really desperate. He must also know that he has already completely lost the youth vote in the forthcoming general election. How do I know? This is because he is proposing the reintroduction of national service for 18-year-olds.
The FT report on this proposal is considerably more useful than that in the Observer, and notes:
The move is part of what he said was an effort to provide security and opportunity in “an increasingly uncertain world”.
Sunak plans to require 18-year-olds to work with the armed forces on a 12-month placement or carry out community work, in a bid to reinforce his claim that he is best-placed to increase security in the UK.
“Generations of young people have not had the opportunities or experience they deserve and there are forces trying to divide our society in this increasingly uncertain world,” Sunak said.
There are, in other words, a whole mass of messages in here.
First, apparently fourteen years of Tory government has failed young people. Few of them would disagree, in my experience.
Second, the fact that they do not agree with him means that they are, in his opinion, a “force trying to divide our society”.
Third, they must, therefore, be forced back into line.
Fourth, this will apparently create certainty, otherwise known as mindless compliance with the orders of those who created this problem in the first place.
Politics in this country could do without stupidity on this scale when there are so many real issues requiring attention. But to address them would require Sunak to admit that the force that has divided society is his own party, and that would never do.
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Tory Manifesto: the longest suicide note in history.
National Service was abolished at the urging of… the army. Why bring it back now?
Could it be that the aim is to have a huge LINO win? (Sunak wants to lose?)
Or is it just that the tories have, finally, completely lost their marbles?
Young people undoubtedly need to have more than just work/eductiona – they need to be occupied
I was lucky & had the Scouts (& a scout building where we did all sorts of things – build fibre-glass canoes, hold discos (raise money) etc.
But many young people now lack outlets due to 14 years of Tory austerity (& will continue to lack due to the Tory-continuity-party).
National Service ain’t the answer.
Sunak’s suggestion of the re-introduction of National Service is proof that he really is a deeply untalented and unimaginative politician who has time and again been forced to employ his sole tactic: division. Its yet another right-wing nostalgia-driven fantasy that speaks only to the most uncritical and obtuse reactionaries. He’s playing to a dwindling audience.
I believe Novara Media did a section in one of their shows last week detailing a poll compiled of what the respondents thought were important issues for them that would influence their voting intention. Defence ranked in as second least important (about 10% of people ranked this as a priority) and was the sole issue where the Tories were regarded as being more trusted than the Labour Party, although the difference between them was nominal. So promising National Service isn’t going to provide him with much heft at all.
Sunak’s idea of promising National Service absolutely reeks of utter desperation, so much so that I’m patiently waiting for him to turn to religion as his last resort. The tide has come in and just like Cnut, Sunak is left soggy and dishevelled (literally), appears ridiculous and now smells (politically) rather worse than one of Crosby’s dead cats in part thanks to all the waste he and his colleagues have allowed to be discharged into the waterways.
The Conservative Party has always taken upon itself to argue about divisiveness, because in Government it arbitrates what is divisive. The only way to avoid the criticism of being divisive is to agree with the Conservatives. Look more closely at the Conservative Party and you see they are the most divisive force in British politics. They brook no opposition; they are intolerant, and they are prone to extremes.
Your point that Sunak has no hope with the young absolutely hits the mark. But clearly he wants to solidify support with people in their 60s and older who still read the Daily Mail and the Telegraph. Most of whom were born in the 40s, 50s and 60s and so never did national service themselves (it was abolished from 1957 for those born after October 1939 so my parents and in-laws, all at or approaching 80, were not old enough to serve).
The British armed forces do not want thousands of unwilling 18 year old conscripts for a year or two. Any that are willing could simply join up already.
And compulsory volunteering? How does that work?
Which decade does Sunak think we live in? What next? Reintroduction of the death penalty and corporal
punishment? Recriminalisation of homosexuality? Rationing and steam trains? Return to the gold standard? Workhouses?
All of those I should think
If one is in a party where many think reducing inheritance tax is a election winner, then a national service scheme will seem almost sensible.
It all sounds v silly / pathetic and worst divisive. I’m sure I’m not the only one who figured the “choice” on offer would be middle class kids become weekend interns and working class kids get sent to whatever mad front line the UK helps create ……
How to stop this silly topic of division?
– one method might be to note that having a well-trained cohort of trained but (still) deeply disenfranchised trained fighters might be less docile about engineered poverty and discrimination.
– reflect on the conditions that proceeded perhaps the most progressive redistribution of wealth in the UK in 1946-1970 (ish). … Oh yes …. A generation of military trained people who had witnessed their “betters” close up, experienced other places away from their homes and who wanted to have better housing, education, health …….. And figured they’d earned it.
But there were also inspirational politicians who sought and demanded change/improvement…… Sigh!
To be fair Sunak’s national service scheme bears no resemblance to the one I knew and dreaded as a teenager (but missed by a month as my birthday is in May). In fact it’s a pity he didn’t bill at as a Job Guarantee Scheme, which it sort of is. Even then it’s a damp squib because 18 year olds who qualify will only have to work in some sort of social service at weekends. If they opt for the armed forces they will have to sign on for a year, so only those who would have been interested in a military career would anyway would do so. Mind you it has certainly got him some column inches.
And where are charities and others going to get the funding from to use this lot?
And if it is weekend only how does it fit with work/ study?
This is just crass
National Service created a range of issues & The Army hated it with a vengance.
The biggest one though was that it disrupted conscripts education and careers in particular anyone in Education or Training.
It certainly ended a friends father’s apprenticeship in TV & Radio repairs
My father who was in the Army from 1940 to 46 was also opposed to it because even if you are in a service unit as he was with a normal working week & a job to do – he was a driver/Company Clerk there was always a great deal of ‘skiving’ and it didnt start young peoples working lives in a very positive way
As a person in the age group considered right-leaning, Tory supporting, and a comfortably-off home owning grandparent, I am none of the above. At 17 years old I left home to embrace the challenges of independent living and explore the world; it was possible back then. I am no good with children so I never had any, but we all share a collective responsibility towards children and young people. I am deeply ashamed of how my generation, many of them Tory voters, have increasingly descemated the hopes and opportunities of young people. Austerity shut down Sure Start, crippled educational opportunities and eliminated youth centres, but the Tories wonder why gang violence has increased! The politicians vying for public office bleat about getting young people ‘onto the housing ladder’, but in reality those under 30 cannot even afford to leave home due to the exorbitant cost of rents.
Brexit eliminated freedom of movement as Boris even managed to bail the UK out of the Erasmus scheme. Better travel options for the under-thirties was a recent EU offer, rejected by the Tories to keep our youth ‘Prisoners of Mother England’; can you blame the POMs for whinging! Equal pay for equal work does not extend to people under 25 as the minimum wage is lower for them, as is any benefit paid if they are out of work. Then there are zero hours contracts that maintain the constant stress of uncertainty over unreliable low wages. Young people who do not have parental support to continue living at home with their family will descend into destitution if they do not work extra long hours in several jobs just to survive as they still face the same bills that we must all pay.
Students entering University will have the burden of tuition fee debt to cope with, making sure that, even if they get a higher paid job and pay higher taxes, their debt will mean that they end up paying for their tuition twice over. Of course they will also have to compete for jobs with those who can legally be paid 20% less; ‘the best and the brightest’ scavenged from countries who could not afford to train them! School leavers could choose to do a so-called Apprenticeship; more realistically an ‘Exploitership’ which pays a pittance for skills once acquired during fully paid employment. At one point the Tories used mandatory ‘work experience’ placements to provide cheap labour so that companies like Tesco could avoid hiring fully paid employees. Rishi Sunak’s National Service mandatory volunteer commitment oxymoron plan is the Tories latest scheme for exploiting young people with ‘mandatory’ free Volunteer labour. Exploit the poor to enrich the rich!
Among the proposals that I sent for you to look over entitled ‘Collaborative Circular Migration’ there were a number of viable concepts for providing opportunities. One of the proposals was for an overseas ‘Gap Year’ opportunity for school leavers, or people out of work, as an alternative to funding unemployment in this country. Another scheme would open up skills apprenticeship opportunities overseas. The first element of Collaborative Circular Migration was devised after I witnessed first hand, on a ten country tour of sub-Saharan Africa, the damage the UK inflicts on developing countries by scavenging medical personnel. If overseas training already meets NHS standards, why not train UK Medical students in developing countries alongside their local counterparts? I know you are very busy, but I hope that one day you will read and assess the papers I sent you.
I think that the Tory National Service proposal is an attempt to ramp up their scare tactics for WWIII. The BBC is constantly running programs that glorify WWII or embellish on our collective horor of the Nazis. Despite that negative depiction of fascism we are well and truly heading in that direction, with curbs to our right to protest and diminishing civil liberties. Army personnel are visiting our schools and encouraging kids to examine weaponry in a glorification of war as an unashamed pre-recruitment drive. Both the Tories and Labour are stressing an ultra nationalism, flag waving agenda with the demonization of migrants. We must proactively get involved in community cohesion projects to combat the negativity of this distressing collective political wrong direction.
‘No Ceasefire No Vote’ Independant’s running on an anti-war agenda should not be seen as single issue candidates, because support for the Zionist Gaza Genocide is emblematic of a total lack of humanity. If your MP honestly believes that Israel’s right to defend itself extends to blowing children to shreds and starving an entire population, then why would they show concern for impoverished children in the UK, living in cold damp homes and going to school hungry? When Starmer refused to abolish the two child benefit cap, he demonstrated his inhumanity towards our citizens long before he sided with Israeli monsters preparing to cut off water and other vital supplies to Palestinians.
We can only hope the Independent candidates knock out the most toxic Tory and Labour MPs including Starmer. In an Article in the Canary Rachael Swindon wrote: “I am absolutely delighted to see so many strong and principled socialists standing at the general election on 4 July. Jeremy (Corbyn) isn’t the only independent candidate that will be standing on an anti-genocide platform. Andrew Feinstein, Claudia Webbe, Tasnime Akunjee, Tahir Mirza, Pamela Fitzpatrick, and many other first class candidates — all supported by Collective — will be taking the fight to the Tories, both red and blue” I hope that Mike Parr will add all these names to his list of Independent Candidates for the upcoming election on Indy2024.
I’m looking forward to seeing the “exceptions”. Talented footballers? Promising actors? Interns (who are not paid anyway? Undergraduates at Russell Universities? And will we not accept overseas students until they are over 19?
Tories taking us back to 1947 and conscription.
Actually, I think that’s wrong.
The Tories want to take us back to 1847.
The Conservatives have been sitting up a theme, ‘the world is becoming a more dangerous place’…….only we have plans to protect you. The meta massage being, ‘this is not the time for change’. However bad, things could get worse. Shadow of Corbyn evoked..
If Nation Service was a show of force designed to park a metaphorical tank on the front pages and dominate the election news agenda it’s succeeded. Possible the first in a series is stunts to deny other parties media attention.